12/07/16
“Wilderness and a Way Forward” - Bangor Daily News

The first people to settle the region around Moosehead Lake didn’t even come because of the sprawling body of water that covers 120-square miles.

They came for the woods. And the work they did — clearing land, farming, setting up sawmills — set the stage for a lumbering tradition that powered more than a century of growth.

Today, however, Greenville has a population almost 20 percent smaller than at its 1960 peak. Its school enrolls 40 percent fewer students than in 1999.

Without significant effort, the town — and the area around it — will continue to decline.

But Greenville is one of the few places in the rural reaches of the state that has a chance of stopping its downward trajectory. That’s because residents — mostly members of local businesses — are devoting years of their lives to changing the region’s projected fate.